Griffith never ceases to amaze me

Today.
30 July 2007, Ms Chiam & Ong’s Convocation Ceremony. The day when we get to receive the paper which validates our years of hard work and the massive amount of money invested on this expensive education.

I was (of course) acting as her PA to Ms Chiam. Felt very proud of her when she donned her graduation attire on, all smart and serious in her robe and that square hat. My eyes started to sting when the ceremony began…. as it reminded me of TP graduation ceremony; where my dad came alone to witness his daughter receiving several awards and her Diploma on stage. I could almost feel his pride when I stepped up and received my medal, in midst of the excited cheering from my friends. That’s my daughter, he would smile to himself. The emphasis and seriousness that TP placed on giving graduates their due credits on this day was affectionately genuine and heart-warming.

This led me back to today, where this supposedly significant ceremony has presented itself as an emotionless, flat and near-to-pointless occasion for graduates and their guests.

The ceremony took place in Gold Coast Convention Centre where family and friends have to pay 24 bucks to attend. Yes. Each and everyone. You will say: Well, Griffith need to pay manpower fees and rental for the function space, right?

True. But if you do the maths… if there are 300 graduates in the 2 hours afternoon session, with an average of 2 guests (where the estimate is really understated as most of them will have 4 or more). There will be 600 guests x AUD$25 (ticket), making a grand total of AUD15K.

There used to be no charges for carpark, but now, they charging $5 per entry.
Photography came at an extraordinary price- $24 for an A4 size picture. Robe rental came to $60 per graduate. And get this- There were NO refreshments or drinks for the guests. They gave out 2 drink coupons to Wenting (who bought 5 entry tickets) in exchange of 2 bottles of mineral water.

Y’all just about making money money money right? Good business mind, Griffith. Never mind about the graduates. Dig hard for gold while you are at it~

Those who have been to Graduation Ceremony in Singapore, should get the idea of the stark contrast by now. For the price of NOTHING, you get to enjoy mingling with your fellow graduates, family and friends with refreshments served in the foyer. You get to say your farewell to your lecturers and professors, who will be beaming with pride throughout the ceremony.

We could not stay in the foyer for long as it was too crowded and chaotic. I did not see any of the teaching staff (most likely they are in Uni, as today is a School day. We have skipped lesson to attend).

Let’s not compare the Price, Food or the Ambience. Let’s talk about the Basic- the ceremony itself.

When you approached to receive your degree, you will be greeted with the sight of 20 people seated on the stage. They are some kind of Doctors or whatever- which I have no interest to find out who the heck they are. The audience are expected to stand up in respect as they marched in with stony expressions and placed their butts to the chairs on the stage. The Emcee has ‘dictated’ to audience that they should applause for every graduate who receives their Award. Fair enough. I am happy to do that. And what did those High & Mighties did? Only a handful clapped half-heartedly throughout the 90 min ceremony. The rest looked like they have something better to do, flipping their program books again and again. Looking Extremely Bored. Right on the Stage.

And we bloody have to stand on feet and sent them off, with that inspiring music in the background.

WTF.

Why should we be giving them the respect when they give none back?

Never mind about that again. We are perfectly forgiving bunch of folks. But it just pained me when Wenting’s mum asked me: “What? Are they calling her? Wen Chiam? That is not her name….”. I watched in silence when Wenting took stiff strides across the stage. I knew the answer, but I did not wish to explain to her. The answer will be ridiculous. The ceremony went on with weird Asian names that made people laughed quietly.

I have rounded up that almost 55% of the graduates were Asians, mostly consisted of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. After all, Griffith is THE Uni for International students.

“We care deeply for our international students. We will persist to assist them in any way; we can to make their stay in Australia a meaningful, beneficial and comfortable one.”

That seemed to be the main gist of Griffith message driven to lure potential international students. Wonder if they can sleep at nights with all these false claims. They do not even bother to get their precious cum money-churning students’ names right! It is such a fucking big University with international students flocking in more than they can hope for. And they just couldn’t spend some time and efforts to establish a system to get the ‘allegedly complicated’ Asian names in order (despite all the notifications and complaints that you guys got our names WRONG?)!

You are freaking presenting us the Degree which we worked so hard for it, with a name that we do not even recognise. Does it kill you guys to announce our full names? Is ‘Chiam Wenting’ very difficult? How about that ‘Christopher O’Brien’ that you said so smoothly? That wasn’t complicated or too long??

Is this treatment acceptable? Is it even ethically right?

We spent over 25K for an education in your University. And you offered us with no sincere recognition, no memorable ceremony and a bitter-sour taste in our mouths to take home.

No thanks, Griffith. I will be most likely skipping my own Graduation Ceremony. I do not want my family and friends to spend a bomb to travel here for a meaningless graduation, where you will be calling me upon stage with ‘Kar Ko’, ‘Hwee Ko’ or ‘Ko Hwee’.

That is not Me.

Vinz showed me this interesting webbie for The Golden Compass. Think the movie gonna be great too~

DNA Report

Cool quiz taken from Danzel's Blog. Do psych yourself~

This is my report (Mouse over for details):

Attentive Leader

(Click the above link for the test)

My personalDNA Report
FYI: This report confirms that I Do behave like a man... scoring lowest on Femininity... Blah~!

What you should learnt from this lesson:

Imagine folks love to drop these on me:
‘We are having so much fun here~ too bad you ain’t here.”
“Why do you have to go to school?? You just waste money and your time lah~”

The one that makes me smile:
“We all miss you so much leh…. Please come back, faster!”

The cold hard truth is that I am beginning to regret taking up an overseas bachelor course. Several unjust incidents with the School’s system and perceptions disillusioned and disheartened any motivating gust I have within. I have labelled them as ‘Horror stories’ which have reinforced that racial prejudice is much alive everywhere and Singapore’s work efficiency is still the best.

Nevertheless, my time in Australia is not exactly wasted. There are positive developments in my life and character-building. By the influence of Roomie, I pick up beading as my hobby- the only hobby I have in my entire life. I learnt to cook better and strived hard to be a better Griller than Roomie. Her patience is something I don’t possess. My grilled chickens always turn out to be African relatives to hers. She got me hooked on CSI, the TV series, which I found myself fatally addicted to it now. Now, with the vigour of a crime scene investigator, I analyse and rationalise every single occurrence, encounter, and moment of my daily life.

I read more news than ever- comparing to reading 8 Days as my only bible of current news in Singapore. Although the news I read are more of personal interests like celebrity gossips, strange happening, crimes and world of animals, there are also increased interest in the tourism industry which I can spend the whole afternoon, browsing the e-newsletter from Travel Weekly. I am not saying I have attained wisdom- in fact; I’m like a new-born baby who just gets to know the world. And with the new wakening awareness of the world, I found myself, tiny, on the enormous magnitude of the Universe. The world is not about me or you. Whatever terrible ordeals that we went though, are in reality, trivial in scale to whatever happening around.

This brought me to the heart-wrenching consciousness of the Holocaust. I sobbed when I listened to the horrifying stories of the survivors on the Oprah Show. I showed my heartfelt appreciation with tears as I watched the movie ‘Miracle by Midnight’. It was inspired by true events- where people in Denmark helped the Jews to escape, despite the fatal price they have to pay if caught by the Nazis.

Not forgetting, that Roman Catholic priest, Oliver O’Grady. That son of the b***h. That f***king paedophile just further augment my lack of faith in Religion. Arm of God that raped and sodomised his followers. He was convicted a tad too late with a punishment too light.


I have heard enough of ‘GOD SAID YOU SHALL…….’. Why should we trust the Man’s interpretation of God?? Where, the mind of Man, is the most treacherous weapon in the entire Universe? How did the Church react when they knew about their priests and the perverted games? They washed, covered and powdered those abusers' asses. How inspiring is that- such a strong sense of Brotherhood displayed. I wondered~ why the heck are they preaching against homosexuals- when they can’t wait to hold those young boys in their arms themselves?

This irked me bloody much to know that people get so blinded with the notion of religion that they place all their life and hopes on a fellow human. The blind sheep that flocked devotedly to a lost shepherd deserved no pity.

Face it. There are flaws in religion beliefs. We don’t need a Man-God. The only true God lives in your heart. Listen to what He has to say… not he.

Create Your Own!

Do you know You?

Seriously. Do you?

I am helpless here. Everyone said of course. I told myself, many times- that I knew better. But that wisp of confidence has made its U-turn, left me high and dry, hoping to catch a glimpse of certainty again.

Now everyone seemed to understand me better than myself. I could trust my judgement- no more. It is frightening. And so sickening. I can’t stand the Silence berating me like a child.

Stop it. I don’t want to think. Don’t want to reflect. Don’t want to keep seeking answers in places that I don’t even know how to go there.

Maybe I should take the chance to tell you what I truly want.

Wait a minute. Let me search deep. I might get an insight or two.

Or None.

Crashed and blessed

I slept through it... a long deep, sound sleep. Only to be woken by a concerned phone call.

Caught Oprah’s show with my breakfast cum lunch and found that the topic of the day coincided weirdly with my state of mind: ‘How to deal with feelings caused by trauma’

It is said that when you are not in tuned with your feelings after a terrible happening, obsessive habits like over-eating or over-spending might developed, in an attempt to soothe yourself. And the cure is to connect with your deepest inner feelings and recognise it... starting with the magic words of ‘I feel…’

Here am I .. giving it a go.. Before I became obsessed with sleep.

I feel guilty for causing the car accident which has created a domino effect of damages and consequences that followed.

I feel sickening awful for putting Roomie through such ordeal. For causing her headaches and the inconveniences.

I feel damn angry with myself. For all that have happened.

I feel worried. The impact of the crash has hurt my back, which worsened the next day. Can feel the pain spreading slowly to my neck and lower spine. Will it affect me in future?

But….
I also feel blessed that this accident has taught me a lesson with no claim of life or bodily harm to others. The damages caused, hopefully, can be solved with money.

I feel fortunate to know that in times of needs, there are people who truly care and support me- even it means extending their hard-earned savings out to help.

Phews…

Well, I guess this little exercise does helps. Now I have faced the reality, I should be able to go through it- head-on. Although it did not erase the torturing replays of the accident in my mind, I have recognised that it had happened and that, it could not be undone.

But really, I should be counting the blessings as worse consequences that might have occurred.
And again, I feel truly thankful that Roomie is fine. If not, I will be stricken with guilt for the rest of my life.